Chicken Marengo, Everywoman's March 1955

I'd never heard of this magazine before but I now have a bunch of them.  (Apparently Mrs. Katz Cohn was a fan.)  Luckily on page 3 of this issue is a letter from the publisher explaining why the magazine is less expensive than most women's magazines of the day.  Everywoman's magazine was a publication sold in grocery stores only.  It wasn't sponsored by the grocery stores, just distributed directly from the publisher with no middle man.  Thus the price was only 5¢ versus the standard 25¢ to 35¢ for traditionally distributed magazines.  Family Circle started out this way too but is now published and distributed thru a magazine publisher.

So on to our Chicken Marengo.  First before I forget- this went very well with white rice.  You need something to sop up all the delicious juices.  Yummy bread would work too.  I served sautéed spinach as our vegetable.

Here's the original recipe:

I didn't change much except the onion situation.  12 small whole onions weren't to be found in my grocery store.  It's that whole onion sizing thing again.  Also I didn't add the green pepper and tomato at the end.  Tomatoes are awful this time of year and hubby detests green pepper.

Here's my version:

1 chicken, cut in 8 pieces
1 large white onion, sliced thinly
1-8oz package of sliced mushrooms
Rind of l lemon, juice from 1/2 of the lemon (It was a really big lemon and needed to save the other half for my son- he has a sore throat.)
1-11.5 oz Can tomato juice
1/2C Flour with salt and pepper to taste
6T Olive oil
1-1/2t Salt
1/2t Pepper
1/2t Thyme

First heat half of the oil in a large skillet.  Sauté the onions until translucent.  Remove from the pan.  Add the rest of the oil to the pan.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour and place skin side in the hot pan.  Turn each piece occasionally so that it browns all over.

While the chicken browns zest the lemon and juice half of it or the whole thing if your lemon is small.  My lemon was about 4 inches long.  This big:

It was organic too.  Go figure!

Then pour the tomato juice, salt, pepper, and thyme into the bowl with the lemon juice and rind.  (I used a large measuring cup.)  Mix well.  Once the chicken is all nice and brown put the onions and mushrooms into the pan.  Pour the lemon-tomato mixture.  Jostle the chicken around so the juice gets mixed in well with the veggies.  Cover and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.  Serve with rice.  (Yay!  I didn't forget!!)

Everyone liked this dinner for the most part.  Hubby had seconds.  (Jackpot!!)  My Little Miss Sweet 16 ate the chicken mixed with the rice when I cut it off the bone for her.  (Big surprise.)  My middle daughter said she liked the rice plain (what?) and my son, who's throat was very sore, said it was worth the pain of swallowing.  If this isn't a positive endorsement I don't know what is!!

Enjoy!